Love Science
by ALBrooks14
Summary: This story is set in the future, and follows one week in the life of Christian, a brillant robotics scientist. He falls in love with his creation, only to be confronted by the girl who loved him in high school.


Love Science

This is a story for anyone who thinks they have had a bad week. Try having a bad week when you are a brilliant scientist, living in a town of other brilliant people, not just scientists, but artists, poets, and even criminals. Every graduate from Rich Simmons High attends Rich Simmons University. Rich Simmons was the founder and the richest citizen of Shady Valley. He founded the university after students from the high school were disappointed with the ease of classes at MIT and other top universities.

Our particular story focuses on the town's number one robotics scientist, Christian Reso. He graduated from the high school in 2091, top of his class, attended the university and graduated with top honors there in 2095. He traveled the world studying robotics with other top scientists, finally returning home at the turn of the century.

During his time in high school and college, Christian was considered the top prospect, not only in his field, but in the realm of dating. Every woman he came in contact with fell in love with him, but he only had time for his studies, even turning down his classes' salutatorian Michelle for a prom date.

Michelle was always second best to Christian and everyone thought that as the top two they would end up together, but after this turn down, Michelle began to show signs of anger and after graduating she left town to not be heard from again.

But as I said, none of this bothered Christian and upon his return to the town, he set out to build a robot that would amaze everyone.

"Finally, after all these years, I will be making an impact on the town." Christian said to his assistant and friend John Morrison.

"You have already made an impact by somehow remaining the most eligible bachelor for all these years." Morrison said, with a laugh.

"You are always on about that. I'm talking about this biggest leap in human technology since space flight. With a few final parts and of course a human shell to make it more appealing to the townsfolk, I will have built the most complete robot assembled to date!" Christian said, continuing to construct his life's work.

"I knew what you meant, but I don't see why you haven't settled down. That is the only way that the town keeps going and keeps a good reputation. Even a smart girl from another place would work." Morrison said, as he monitored the screen with the technical read out.

"I'm only 27, I have plenty of time for all of that. That's the last part, now for a human shell." Christian said as he attempted to change the subject.

"Any ideas?" Morrison stated, knowing that he would be able to attack the topic again.

"Well given what we've been talking about, this is going to seem strange, but I had a dream about a girl from high school, but I can't seem to remember her name. But I know that's what I want my robot to look like. Oh and the robot will be called M.I.C.K.I.E."

Christian said all of this as he input the specs on how the robot should have looked.

"Mickie?" Morrison asked, with a quizzical expression on his face.

"Yes, the Multifunction Intelligence and Customs Keeper, Initial Entry." Christian said in a pompous way, not intended to be insulting, but to show his well thought out work.

"So, Mickie for short?" Morrison said, laughing at the look on Christians face.

"And to think you were only a little below me in school." Christian said, laughing at Morrison's joke.

As Christian and Morrison joked the human shell began to be constructed on the robot. Long blonde hair was put into place as the computer began to generate the blue eyes and tanned skin of a woman about their age.

"Wow, nice choice on the shell. I know that face as well, but I can't remember the name! Isn't that strange?" Morrison said, walking around looking at the beauty of the thing that had been created. "You didn't tell me about the dream that gave this to you."

"I didn't think it was important, and seeing as how you have been today about my personal life, I think telling you might be a mistake." Christian said, pouring himself and Morrison a drink.

"Come on man, you have never kept secrets before, especially when it influences our work." Morrison said, accepting the glass.

"Ok, I guess I won't get any peace until I tell you."

Christian moved over to the table on the far side of the room, recalling the dream he had almost a week prior.

"I was in Paris, eating at my favorite bistro, when this beautiful woman walked up to me and she remembered me from high school. We talked for a bit, and as we talked I felt myself slowly falling for this woman. Even asleep that is a feeling I have never had. And it was like this dream woman knew what I was thinking and told me that it was ok to feel this way and that I should take what I remembered of her and make use of it on my project. That is when I woke up." Christian said, taking a sip of his wine.

"Whoa, that is something else man. I never thought you would fall for anyone. Wish we could remember her name. She might still be around town." Morrison said, also taking a sip, and using the dream as an opportunity to resume the earlier conversation.

"And here I thought I would get some peace after I told you!" said Christian, as he began to laugh with his friend. "We should be able to test _Mickie _now."

Morrison and Christian began to boot up Mickie and as she started to move Morrison began to cheer.

"Finally all the years of study and work seem worth it." Christian marveled, "Mickie, I am your maker, Christian."

"I am Mickie, and you are Master Christian." The robot Mickie said, as she began to move around, "I believe the proper custom is a handshake, is it not master?"

"That would be correct." Christian said, shaking Mickie's hand, "Mickie, this is Morrison, he is our friend."

"Pleased to meet you, Friend Morrison." Mickie said, also shaking Morrison's hand.

"Pleasure is all mine, Mickie." Morrison said, also shaking hands with Mickie.

"Morrison, I think it may be time to finally tell everyone in town what we have been working on. Who is your friend at the paper?" Christian said, smiling from ear to ear.

"Ah Melina, I think I should handle this one pal." Morrison said, patting Christian on the back as he walked out.

"Master, what is the meaning of Friend Morrison's reaction to the word "Melina"?" Mickie said, following Morrison's path with her eyes.

"Well first of all Mickie, his name is just Morrison," Christian said, smiling even more as he wrote Morrison on the computer pad, "And this is something that I may not be able to explain, but he likes Melina. Melina is a person, like myself and Morrison, but she is like you."

"She is female? I understand. He has an attraction towards her." Mickie quoted, as she began to examine the room. "Is the whole world like this?"

"No, the world is much bigger and less electronic. When Morrison gets back we will begin to explore our part of the world, Shady Valley." Christian said, trying not to laugh out loud, but he almost couldn't help it.

"After all these years of studying, the months of hard work, and one silly dream, I have the perfect piece of robotics in front of me." Christian thought as Morrison came back into the room.

"Mel said that she will help us arrange a meeting for later this afternoon at town hall so that the entire town can see this…I mean her." Morrison said, looking at Mickie examining the room, "How is she so far?"

"Perfection. Explain something to her to get the synapse to fire and she knows exactly what you are talking about. Just like we planned." Christian said, pouring Morrison another glass of wine.

"Morrison, Master, what is this that you are consuming?" Mickie said looking curiously at the glasses.

"It is called wine Mickie." Morrison said, as he handed Mickie the glass.

"Wine, an alcoholic beverage made of fermented grapes." Mickie said, as she swirled the glass around and smelled the wine, took a small sip and spit it into another glass. "This is Chardonnay 1990."

"When you said perfection you meant it!" Morrison said, taking the glass from Mickie.

"We better get ready for the press conference. Mickie come with me and I will show you where you will be sleeping." Christian said, as he walked towards the stairs.

"Yes master." Mickie said following him.

"The conference is at 6:30 at Town hall! I'm going to meet Mel for dinner and we will meet you there." Morrison said, grabbing his jacket and heading out the back door.

Christian led Mickie upstairs. "Here is your room, and your clothes are in the closet. I need you to dress nice for tonight. We are going to introduce you to our town." Christian said, watching Mickie form the connections.

"Formal dress, sometimes including a pant suit, but generally for female a dress, and nice shoes. I understand master." Mickie said.

"I knew you would. I will meet you downstairs in an hour." Christian said, hugging Mickie.

"Master? What is this action?" Mickie said, her arms by her side.

"Sorry Mickie this is a hug." Christian said releasing her.

"A hug, show of affection between families, sometimes friends, and between lovers." Mickie said, hugging Christian back.

Christian let Mickie inside and as she closed the door he began to quickly walk towards his room.

"She's not a real person Reso, pull it together. You have been in control of your emotions for all these years and now because of one dream you start hugging a robot? You don't even know if the girl in the dream is real." Christian fumed at himself as he began to get changed.

As he was changing he heard a loud bang from down the hall. He rushed from his room to Mickie's room, and opened the door to find Mickie on the ground, half way through dressing.

"Mickie! What happened?" Christian asked, pull the blanket off the bed to wrap around her.

"I am sorry master; I slipped on the shoe I foolishly left out of place." Mickie said, looking at Christian with her blue eyes.

"Are you ok?" Christian said, looking puzzled by this. His robot shouldn't be forgetful.

"Yes master. Have I done something wrong?" Mickie said, standing up with the blanket still wrapped around her.

"No, Mickie I was just worried is all. Finish getting ready and I will meet you downstairs." Christian said, still looking confused.

"Yes master." Mickie said, dropping the blanket on the bed and resuming her dressing.

A few minutes later, Christian was waiting downstairs as Mickie came down the stairs, and despite his previous berating of himself, he found the sight to be the most beautiful thing he had seen.

"I am ready master." Mickie said, straightening Christian's tie.

Christian, still feeling confused by some of the things Mickie had said and done in the past hour, opened the front door and the car door for Mickie and drove to the press conference.

As Christian pulled his car around the back side of town hall, Morrison and Melina walked up to his car to meet him.

"Hey Christian, and this must be Mickie." Melina said, walking over to Mickie.

"Yes, I am Mickie. You must be Morrison's affection, Melina." Mickie said, as Morrison choked on the drink of Coke he was taking.

"It seems she knows more than I do, here Mickie come this way with me." Melina said, smiling at Christian and Morrison, whose eyes were watering.

"Well I guess the cat is out of the bag my friend." Christian said, patting Morrison on the back.

"T-that's not the way I wanted that to go. What's wrong Christian?" Morrison asked, as Christian began to look serious again.

"Well I don't quite know what it is, but…" Christian began to recount to Morrison what had happened since he had left.

"While I agree that is strange, it might not be unexpected. We put a lot of work into making her almost human." Morrison said, trying to put his friend at ease. "Come on, Melina has already taken her inside."

Christian and Morrison followed Melina and Mickie into the building and sat behind a table to address the town. After answering questions about how she was made, Christian allowed the people to ask Mickie some questions to show how her brain made connections.

"Mickie, how does it feel to be in town hall for the first time?" One of the townsfolk asked.

"The first time? I've…I mean…Town hall, center of government in a small municipality." Mickie said, quickly.

Christian and Morrison were the only two that noticed this slip, as everyone else in town was cheering.

After the meeting, Christian and Morrison were shaking hands and as people began to file out Christian and Morrison both looked at Mickie.

"What master, and Morrison? Have I done something wrong?" Mickie said.

Christian and Morrison both looked at each other, and as they did their eyes went black and they woke up in a hospital room, with Melina at their side.

"Oh my, you two are awake. The doctors weren't sure when you would wake up. But I hate to bear bad news but after we found you two, Mickie vanished." Melina said, squeezing Christian's hand and then holding Morrison's.

"How long have we been out?" Christian said, too stunned to acknowledge the fact that his master work was gone.

"Almost 5 days." Melina said, with tears forming in her eyes.

"I'm glad you two are awake, because when you get better, I need to ask you some questions," said a voice by the door, the voice of Shady Valley police chief, Hunter.

"Questions? About what?" Morrison said, seeing his old high school rival glaring from the door.

"About why you created a robot capable of destroying the town and knocking people out." Hunter said, with a smirk on his face.

"What are you talking about?" Melina said, looking frightened.

"I guess not being at work for 5 days has left you out of the loop." Hunter said, turning on the TV.

"Another attack today on our small town by the failed experiment of disgraced robotics expert, Christian Reso, who is still unavailable for comment, having been the first target of his robot, called Mickie." The newscaster said, looking grim.

"Mickie? It can't be her, she wouldn't have the programming to do these things. I'll admit that after she slipped on her shoe, she wasn't the same as her programming should have dictated, but killing and destroying?" Christian said in disbelief.

"Well she is. She was sighted shortly after you two were found, conveniently knocked out I might add, destroying your house. Which leads me to believe there is something there that you didn't want us to find." Hunter said, glaring at Christian.

"Mr. Reso, you are cleared to leave when you are ready." The doctor came in and said, looking at Hunter as he walked out.

"Good now you two can come with me to see the destruction you have caused." Hunter said, as Morrison and Christian got up and started getting dressed.

After being loaded into the police car, Christian and Morrison began to look around the town and see the destruction that was being attributed to their creation.

"Two days ago she attacked the high school and its nothing more than ruins, which luckily no one was hurt but the prom has been cancelled." Hunter said, glancing back in the rear view at the two in the back.

"She has no weapons, I don't know how this is happening." Christian said, looking around.

"Well there is nothing to prove what you say, so you two are coming down town with me. The station is about the only place that hasn't been destroyed yet." Hunter said, turning down the street towards the station. And that is when they saw her.

Mickie was standing down the street, wearing a black jumpsuit, and she was looking right at the squad car.

"Where did she get those clothes? I didn't get anything like that." Christian yelled as the car slowed down.

"Mmmaster…" Mickie said as she fell to the ground.

"Let me out! That's the real Mickie, not the one causing the damage!" Christian said, kicking the back of the seat.

"Calm down Reso, or I will take you in." Hunter said, as he let Christian out.

"Mickie, Mickie are you ok?" Christian said, lifting Mickie off the ground.

"Master, I have failed and I have done wrong. Please do not let me continue this. Destroy me…" Mickie said, the same piercing blue eyes looking at Christian.

"You heard her Reso. Don't let her continue." Hunter said, handing Christian his night stick.

Christian raised his hand to strike. But then he threw the night stick away. "I can't do it. For the first time I love something more than my work."

Morrison let out a sigh and Melina began to cry, as Hunter grabbed Christian and Mickie. "The city has no other choice than to lock you both up. Come on."

As they all entered the building, the glass ceiling broke and in fell a large smoke bomb, and the other officers began to get knocked out and as the mysterious figure moved to attack Hunter, Christian grabbed it, and Hunter cleared the smoke, as Mickie moved forward to help her master.

During the ensuing struggle, Mickie and the mysterious assailant hit the wall, and as they stood up everyone gasped.

Both of the women who stood up looked exactly the same. Christian looked stunned and a dawning fell upon his face.

"You, you are the one from my dream. The one who told me to use your likeness in my project. How?" Christian said, looking at the new comer, who was wearing the same black jump suit as Mickie.

"Well being the top student at Rich Simmons high in human psychology and the inventor of the dream manipulator, it wasn't hard." The woman said.

"Michelle? It can't be!" Christian said, finally recognizing the figure from his dream as his top rival in grades and the girl who pursued him during school. "Everyone has been saying you are dead!"

"No, but after having my heart broken, and seeing how much more you loved your little robots, I might as well be." Michelle said, glaring at everyone gathered in the room, but especially the robot that shared her likeness.

"Why did you take Mickie from me, and why did you destroy the town?" Christian said, finally realizing what damage he had done to the girl that had loved him in high school. "I know that answer. It felt like the only option."

"I did it because I wanted to make you notice me. I wanted you to love me, love me like you loved your school and your work. I wanted you to love me like I love you." Michelle said, tears beginning to form in her soft blue eyes.

Christian walked forward, put one arm around Michelle with her in front of him and said, "Michelle, I do love you, and I think I always have. It took all of this for me to realize it but I know now what I truly need in my life."

As Christian said this, Michelle began to cry and Christian pulled her into a deep hug, and in that moment, her whole life, the years of exile, the few days of destruction, the anger she had felt for years, washed away.

"For years, I was so angry because you were the only one I loved, from the time we met in 7th grade, and then you cared more about the international robotics conference in Prague than you did about prom. I took that rejection hard and spent the years since high school waiting for an opportunity to use my machine and when I heard about your robot, I took that opportunity to set up a plan to frame you for the destruction of the town. But the love you showed the robot outside, it drove me mad and I wanted to kill you. I am so sorry for ruining your dream and trying to ruin your life. Hunter, you can take me in if you must. I didn't kill anyone and rebuilding town will be easy, but I still must be punished." Michelle said, still crying, but finally feeling remorse and happiness at the same time.

"It is my duty to protect this town and its inhabitants. Taking you in would be the end of you, and I can't do that. If you rebuild the town, you will be off the hook." Hunter said, wiping a rare tear out of his eye.

"Thank you Hunter. I will." Michelle said, finally stemming the tide of tears. "Mickie?"

"Yes master's affection Michelle?" Mickie said looking at Michelle.

"Just Michelle. I am sorry if I have caused you harm. And Morrison, sorry I knocked you out…" Michelle said.

"No big deal. Since we are all being honest, Melina, I love you and I want you to marry me." Morrison said, kneeling and pulling out a ring he had bought during his senior year of high school but had been too afraid to give Melina then.

"Yes. I thought you would never ask." Melina said, kissing Morrison, tears running down her face and Michelle began crying with happiness again.

"Master, this is a happy moment?" Mickie asked.

"A very happy moment." Christian said, "Your master has finally found fulfillment in his life. Let's get started cleaning up and then get you a new look."

Epilogue

Two years had gone by and the first of what would be three children of Christian and Michelle and Morrison and Melina's were already walking and talking. Michelle had paid her debt to the town and for the first time since high school was happy. Christian had only built one robot, but he felt more fulfilled than ever. Mickie had proven to be a great nanny. And her new look of long brown hair, and brown eyes helped keep anyone from mistaking Christian's first love from the love that had helped him discover his deepest feelings.


End file.
